50 Books Challenge 2024 Part Seven

[Southeastdweller]

Welcome to the seventh thread of the 50 Book Challenge for this year.

The challenge is to read fifty books (or more!) in 2024, though reading fifty isn't mandatory. Any type of book can count, and please try to let us all know your thoughts on what you've read.

If possible, please can you embolden your titles and maybe authors as well of books you've read or going to read? It makes it much easier to keep track.

Some of us bring over to the new thread lists of the books we've read so far, but again - this is your choice.

The first thread is here, the second one here , the third one here, the fourth one here , the fifth one here and the sixth one here.

What are you reading?

Bernie Gunther creator Philip Kerr's wife (now widow) Jane Thynne has also written a series set in Nazi Germany and featuring Clara Vine, an English woman living there but estranged from her fascist sympathising English father, who becomes a sort of spy. She's also written a couple of other books set in that period and two alternate history books (as C J Carey) set in Britain after Germany won WWII and established Britain as a province of the German empire.

I didn’t realise CJ Carey was Philip Kerr’s wife @elkiedee I read her first one last year and didn’t love it. It sounded like it was going to centre the middle aged women but alas the heroine was again a youthful and attractive blonde (spoken as a true grumpy middle aged woman)

44. Rodham by Curtis Sittenfeld
Much reviewed here in the past. For the first half or third of this, I thought it was an absolute masterpiece. I've read Living History, Hillary Clinton's first autobiography, and Sittenfeld recreates her tone, her style, her relationships and her preoccupations to an uncanny degree. I was riveted by the storytelling and its vividness. The second half, from around 2004 onwards, I found less engaging. But I've still gulped it down, with the satisfaction of breaking a bit of a reading drought for myself (stuck halfway through several books). It may be a West Wing-esque fantasy for those of us with a fascination for US politics, but is that so bad? Clever, sly, provocative and fun.

Look who I’ve been to see today!

Oh I love Wilkie! Need to read another soon. Where is he buried?

With regard to AS Byatt I've only read The Children's Book which I loved and Possession which I trudged through as an audiobook and didn't really enjoy.

The French Lieutenants Woman was one of a huge reading list I had for final year Lit degree, I presented on it at a seminar and I remember nothing about it, absolutely nothing except for the fact that there was one guy in the cohort who used to hold forth with academic sounding spiel pretending to have read things and that he did that for this and then I had to follow with the actual plot of what happened. He once did this for Thomas Hardy and held forth for a good 5 mins until the tutor just coldly answered :

No.

I was delighted

Wilkie!

Totally understandable - I am glad I read the denouement at 6am today not 11pm yesterday (clock change = out of sync still!)

Where does Wilkie lie?
Thanks Remus!

Wilkie is in Kensal Green cemetery. The cemetery was great, but I couldn’t see any other reason to visit Kensal Green tbh.

I used to live about 5 minutes away from there, Remus (not actually in the cemetery, obviously). My little flat that I paid £60k for - my first-ever property - was last on the market for comfortably over 5 times that…..😳

Really enjoying the Anne chat. I got the story tapes of the first one out when i was in top juniors. I loved it so much i got my mum to copy them onto several blank cassettes that were listened to many times. I liked Anne, but Marilla and I were/are kindred spirits. She remains one of my favourite characters in children's literature. I love how dry and sarcastic she is, and her slow thawing throughout the book. Some of the later ones are okay (the last ww1 set one is really odd), but to me they dont live up to the original.
In other news, i am having a clear out & am trying to get rid of mine & DD's sutplus books. It is depressing how hard they are to pass on. Local charity shops dont want them. I've got rid of some through ziffit & music magpie, but they are very selective in what they take. Completely odd what they accept - numbers 1 & 3 in a series, but not 2 & 4? They didnt want any of the later Anne books :-) . It seems so wrong to bin books, but im running out of alternatives. If im to get grips with the house i cant keep them. I still have loads, but some must go as we need to make space.
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Have you got any non 'chain' charity shops near you @Owlbookend or a community second hand bookshop. I find both are always pleased with donations of books here.

The National Trust are always keen for second hand books too.

@Owlbookend have you tried GET free books?

Thanks @sadik . Unfortunately, no non-chain charity shops or secondhand bookstores in our town. Numerous big chain ones (oxfam, cancer research etc.). As soon as they see you brandishing the donations bag they ask 'any books in there?'. Fair enough i guess as they must not be economical to sell. Somebody is sneaking them in though as they all have a few books on the shelves.
I have thought of asking the local primary if they want the kids ones. They are all in good condition, lots of nice picture books etc.

National Trust is a good shout @BestIsWest i forgot they sell secondhand ones in some gift shops. Will take a look at the link @JaninaDuszejko Thsnks.

@Owlbookend we took a couple of boxes to our closest one recently and while they were there I noticed a van from a bookselling company roll up so I think they have some kind of deal with them going on.

I gave about 200 picture books to our old primary and they were very grateful so that's a good option.

Remus I love Kensal Green! If you can go on an open day their tours are well worth attending

Round us Oxfam have specific bookshops - maybe shop space is just cheaper.

Look up Little Free Libraries - was gratified that someone snapped up our tatty Lemony Snicket books.

Oh dear, I am behind again.

Now halfway through the Rivals adaptation - loving the 80s and the humour. RCB actor is growing on me. In terms of the other books, I have read all of them but quite sometime ago in most cases. Although read Polo recently - agreed that Perdita is a brat, RCB a supporting role only, unsurprisingly v horsey. Think RCB has only minor roles until Mount (Horseracing) where he is the main character but is really not great - the sex scenes were pretty dreadful. He is also the main character in Tackle (Football) which was ok - less dreadful sex. Neither can compare to Rivals.

Feel like I should be moving both TFLW and Possession up my TBR pile as they have been languishing on my Kindle for sometime.

Pleased to hear good things about The Ballad of Smallhope and Pennyroyal and have added to my list.

Latest reads are:

74. I Will Greet the Sun Again - Khashayar J Khabushani

K is the youngest of three brothers of Iranian parents living in the US. His father is out of work but a traditional patriarchal, dominant male and wedded to his Iranian culture. His mother runs the home and works and studies but is more open to US culture. The book moves between the US and Iran and covers K’s childhood from 9 to adulthood. It depicts well the desire of children to integrate versus the preservation of cultural heritage and I found the section set in Iran interesting. At some points, I felt the author was shoehorning in issues to tick boxes. It was fine but nothing special.

75. Sea of Memories - Fiona Valpy

This followed the pattern of her other books with a split timeline between WW2 and current day. Ella has grown up in Edinburgh and goes to stay with family friends in the summer of 1938 on the Ile de Re. In the current day timeline Ella’s granddaughter, Kendra, is writing her grandmother’s life story and the consequences of the summer of 1938 and thereafter unfold. I am really keen to visit Ile-de-Re so the fact that much of the story was set there was a bonus for me. Easy reading, slightly predictable but enjoyable.

We leave books on the wall outside our house (busy London street) if the charity shop rejects them (rare, because it's an Oxfam bookshop but happens sometimes if they have no space). They always go, which makes me happy.

The tours sound great.